Shell firm guarantees essays for students ‘plagiarism-free’
Universities condemn website as it claims work passes test software
A SCOTTISH shell firm is offering “plagiarism-free warranties” for academic work it says it can write for students.
Clever Networks runs “essay mills” – a service condemned by Scottish universities as “acting immorally on all levels” – using a mail drop address in Lanarkshire.
The Herald last year revealed the firm was behind three other websites offering similar services to students around the world.
Now it can be revealed as the formal owner of a fourth site, ExtraEssay.com, which guarantees its products are “plagiarism-free”.
Universities and school authorities have repeatedly warned that students can not use such sites and that anyone who does risks serious penalties, including expulsion.
However, ExtraEssay says its products pass anti-plagiarism software used by universities because it is already tested.
The website said: “We consistently check for plagiarism before the papers are sent to you. This ensures the originality writers’ work.
“Each paper is run with a robust and up to date specially designed plagiarism software tool.”
The site also stresses its products are designed to help students learn how to write essays, not for them to pass its work off as their own.
The Herald wanted to ask the site’s managers why they needed plagiarism-free texts to instruct students in essay-writing. However, neither the Glasgow nor the US number provided by the site was operational.
The website, in imperfect English, says it is “a Scotlandincorporated firm... with over 10 hundred clients annually”.
It gives the address of Clever of our Networks’s Scottish virtual office, a firm of accountants in the Main Street of the South Lanarkshire mining village of Douglas.
Other essay mills using the same address and linked to Clever Networks are www.handmadewritings.com and www.writingsguru. com, both of which used a Scottish telephone contact number, and www.essaysusa.com.
A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents all higher learning institutions in the country, last year said: “These ‘essay mills’ and other companies offering similar services are acting immorally on all levels.”
Last year representatives of Handmade Writings, who did not give full names, cautioned The Herald against “labelling” their work as “unethical”.
They referred to their terms of use which say “all products are provided solely as examples of research, reference, and/or for you to learn how to properly write a paper in a particular citation style”.
The terms of use add “if the customer is going to use materials we provide, he is required to reference the material we provided, indicating that our company is the owner of the material”.
ExtraEssay.com claims to have a decade’s experience in providing academics work. Its website was created last year.
Its parent company Clever Networks was incorporated in November 2013 as a Scottish limited partnership and is under no obligation to pay taxes, file accounts or reveal its owners.